Reunion
by so original
Summary: How might Danielle's meeting with her daughter happen? Here's a 'what if' scenario, written in early season 3. COMPLETE.
1. Chapter 1

Reunion

_Chapter 1._

Danielle Rousseau walked quickly through the jungle, determined not to lose sight of the group of people in front of her. She walked with purpose, as did they, though it was not a purpose they shared, despite the fact that they were headed to the same place. She knew that the best chance she had was to follow them and wait for them to make their move. Then she would be able to make hers.

As she walked, she reflected on all the other times she had attempted what she was doing now. Always, she was searching for her daughter. It was her sole purpose in life, not that the island presented many other kinds of pastimes. When she was first taken, she would wander around aimlessly, too grief-stricken to fully realise where she was going, if she'd already searched this area, how she would defend herself if they found her first. But at the same time, she'd been foolishly optimistic. She never once considered that in sixteen years time, she would still be searching.

As the months went by, she gradually changed her tactics. She began to take notice of her surroundings, and eventually managed to cover a large part of the island. She would have covered more if it weren't for the dreaded whispers she began to hear. They drove her away. Once, she would have thought that these voices were a sign of her losing her sanity, alone out here. But instead, they seemed to help her hold on to it. They gave her focus, reminded her, if she ever started to forget, what was out there, who she was looking for. In a strange way, amidst all the fear, they gave her hope.

After a few years, she began to set traps. Trying to capture one of them, to get information, force a trade, whatever it took to get Alex back. This was how she became aware that there was a third group of people on the island.

When she captured Sayid, she was so sure he was one of them. The way he spoke of her distress call, how could he know about that if he wasn't one of them? She was shocked when he mentioned it had been sixteen years. She'd lost track long ago. She was determined, then, to make him suffer, to feel something for what he and his people had done to her. But he convinced her that he wasn't one of them. It was the way he spoke of the woman that had died, the one in his photograph, Nadia. She realised that this was a person who knew what it was like to lose someone. A kindred spirit perhaps. He spoke to her calmly, kindly. She'd forgotten what that was like, just as she'd forgotten many other things. But he kept asking about Alex. She avoided those questions. She didn't want to talk about that with him. As she was alone, she hadn't had to talk about it at all. She felt it would be too painful to actually put into words what had happened.

She decided to show him her music box. She wasn't really sure why, but as he had shared something with her, she felt she should return the favor. Then he offered to fix it. So she let him. She had to drug him in order to move him, of course. She still didn't entirely trust him; though she was convinced he wasn't one of them, it didn't mean he wasn't still a threat. As he was working on it, he asked her questions. She answered them, about her research team, and how she had ended up on the island alone. It felt nice to have a conversation with someone. She still refused to talk about Alex.

She couldn't let him go. She wouldn't admit it, but she needed him. But he escaped as soon as she left her shelter. When she saw him in the jungle, she felt so betrayed. She realised he was going back to his people, and there was nothing she could do to stop him. So she started to walk away, resigned to a life alone. That day, she felt like she'd never see Alex again. Then, he called out to her. "You'll find me in the next life, if not in this one." He explained that it was what was written on the back of his photograph. Suddenly, she felt renewed hope. Perhaps the odds of her finding her daughter were slight, but there was still a chance. She had to focus on that.

Not long after that, she saw the same black smoke and heard the same whispers she had heard the day the Others came to take her baby. She knew that they were coming for the new baby on the island. She pitied the child's mother, as she knew better than anyone the pain of losing a child. But, selfishly, she also realised she had a chance now, to make a possible trade with the Others. Maybe if she gave them what they wanted, they would give her back her own child. It seemed so logical to her. So she went to their camp, pretending to warn them. Then, when she had a chance, after she'd led certain members of the group away, she took the baby. It felt so wonderful to hold a child in her arms again. She suddenly noticed just how much she had missed that. Her hatred for the Others intensified. She also hated herself, for doing to someone else what they had done to her. She was no better than the Others in that moment. But she had to do it. Any mother would understand, if they'd been in her position.

She waited with the child. The Others never came. She was so sure that this was what they wanted, how could she have gotten it wrong? Eventually, Sayid showed up. Convinced her to give the baby back to him. He didn't seem to hate her for what she'd done. He seemed to understand. The other one didn't. She left them, again, feeling ashamed.

In the weeks that followed, she couldn't rid herself of that feeling of shame. It followed her everywhere. She couldn't concentrate anything else. She decided to go back to their camp, to find the baby's mother and try to explain it to her. When she got there, the baby was sick. She knew what it was, but when she tried to explain to the girl, she was chased away. She left the camp quickly, but she stayed close by. The next day, as she'd expected, the girl and another woman, the one she'd led to the Black Rock, came to find her.

She thought they'd just want to find out about the sickness, but it seemed they had another plan in mind. The girl, Claire, mentioned a place she remembered. She mentioned seeing a girl there. Danielle immediately thought of Alex, and willingly helped them look. Claire led them to a room, one that felt vaguely familiar to Danielle, though she wasn't sure why. It was empty. They were both disappointed by this, though for different reasons. They left, Danielle wondering when she would just give up on finding Alex.

Just before Danielle, left the other two, Claire brought up the topic of Alex. Like Sayid, she seemed curious about what had happened to her. By now, Danielle was becoming used to talking about her, so she answered her questions more readily than previously. She smiled fondly as she told Claire what she had named her daughter. "Alex… Alexandra". Claire hesitated; she seemed to be considering telling Danielle something. "I remember a girl. With blue eyes." She said, looking for recognition in Danielle's face. Realizing what she was talking about, Danielle felt her eyes mist up. "She, um, she helped me. She saved me. Just like you did." Claire continued, smiling. "She wasn't like the others." Danielle closed her eyes briefly, overwhelmed by this unexpected gift, trying to hold onto the details, creating a picture in her mind. "She was good." Claire finished.

Danielle wanted so much to thank her for giving her this, but she couldn't get the words out. She left, once again reflecting on the hope she had been given by a member of this group.

She came to realise, that day, how many more opportunities she'd had to find her child since their plane had crashed. Because of this, and, perhaps, because of the overwhelming loneliness she'd long ago ceased to notice that suddenly permeated her senses, she began to spend more time around their camp. She could never live with them; though she could scarcely admit it to herself, it frightened her to be surrounded by that many people after so many years alone, but she found excuses to wander ever more frequently around their little settlement, observing, listening, relishing in the clear sound of their voices, so unlike the bodiless whispers of the Others.

It was as she was doing this one day that she overheard plans of an attack against the Others. She was still processing this information when they all stood up, gathering backpacks and various weapons, and began to head out. Realizing that once again she had been presented with an opportunity, she followed them. 


	2. Chapter 2

_Chapter 2._

Finally, the group ahead of her stopped. She looked around, careful to stay hidden, feeling more apprehensive now than ever before. Deciding it would be futile to remain with her unwitting leaders, she left, silently praying that this time, she would find what she was looking for.

The jungle here was much the same as on the rest of the island, thought the air felt somehow different. It was as if the trees themselves knew of the different conditions in which the habitants of this area lived, compared to those on the other side of the island. It was more …relaxed. These people didn't have to fear a faceless foe, didn't spend every waking minute looking over their shoulders, waiting to be attacked. The air was smug, superior. She could barely breathe.

As she struggled to clear her senses, she noticed a figure move through the trees. Not even aware of what she was doing, she followed. She felt like she was in a dream. The figure, a dark-haired girl, seemed to be searching intently for something, or someone, a feeling Danielle knew too well.

Suddenly, the girl stilled, seemingly sensing that she was being followed. Danielle didn't have time to move, to attempt to hide, before she turned around. Or maybe it was that she didn't want to. She knew, somehow, that the girl standing before her was the one she'd been pursuing for sixteen years.

Alex.

For several long moments, they stared at each other. Gradually, Danielle started to fully appreciate the fact that she was finally living the moment she'd dreamed about for so long. The sense of joy that started to creep in was overwhelming. "Alex…" she breathed, needing to say her name, to break the silence, just to be sure that this moment was real. She moved forward, intending to throw her arms around Alex, to hold her for the first time in so long. Just before she reached her, however, Alex suddenly moved away.

Had there been another person observing this scene, they would have noticed what Danielle could not, so caught up in her own emotions. From the moment she'd seen this stranger, Alex had had the look of person suddenly faced with a potentially life-threatening situation. This woman looked oddly unhinged, and the fact that she knew her name was extremely unsettling. When she saw the woman start to move towards her, she was hit with the urge to run.

Danielle finally seemed to notice the discontent in Alex's eyes. She stopped, looking at the girl sadly, feeling horrible that she had caused that sense of unrest. Most of all, she was devastated that her daughter was afraid of her.

"You don't know who I am." Such sadness in so simple a statement. Danielle noticed a change in Alex's face, almost like she was searching for a fragment of a memory to match with the image in front of her. Alex shook her head, almost imperceptibly. She didn't seem to want to say anything. All of a sudden, Danielle felt so weary. She'd always imagined that Alex would instinctively know who she was for some reason, just as she herself had.

"How do you know my name?" Alex asked, tentatively. Danielle didn't really know how to answer. The words were stuck in her throat. This wasn't how she'd imagined this at all.

"I'm your mother." She answered quietly. She studied Alex's face, determined to see how this news affected her. But there was nothing to see. The girl's face was like a mask, completely devoid of any emotion, impossible to read. They continued to stare at one another.

"You're lying." There was not emotion in the way she said this. But to Danielle, it was like a thousand knives piercing her. The physical pain she felt when she heard those two simple words was unbearable. Again, she made a motion to move towards Alex. She had to make her understand that she was telling her the truth. To make her realise that she had spent every waking moment in the past sixteen years searching for her, that every thought she had was about her, that nothing else mattered except that they were together again.

Her sudden movements seemed to startle the composed expression off Alex's face. She looked slightly scared again. Danielle was glad this time. She wanted her to realise how intense her feelings were. If she could just get her away from this place, somewhere where she could sit down and explain everything to her, she would understand. And then everything would be okay, she could be her mother. They would be together.

Danielle could sense that Alex was going to try to run. She couldn't let that happen. If she left now, she would probably never see her again. She couldn't live with that, not when she'd come so close. When Alex moved, she grabbed at her. "Please, wait." She pleaded with her. It only caused Alex to struggle more. "Let me go! What are you doing?!" She was screaming now. Too loudly. Danielle realised they had to be close to where the Others lived; she couldn't risk them hearing her. She tried to put a hand over her mouth, to try to stifle the noise, all the while keeping a strong grip on Alex's arm. She didn't seem to realise that she was hurting her.

Alex wouldn't stop struggling. She kept trying to get away as Danielle began to drag her back into the jungle. Danielle knew she wouldn't get far if Alex kept this up. Why wouldn't she just listen? Why did she want to get back to them, didn't she realise who they were? She continued trying to subdue her, but nothing was working. Before she noticed what she was doing, she had her rifle out. She hit Alex over the head, hard, knocking her out.

The silence in the jungle now was deafening. Danielle stared at the girl now lying unconscious at her feet. After a moment, she picked her up, and walked off carrying her over her shoulders, intent on getting as far away from there as possible before it got dark. 


	3. Chapter 3

_Chapter 3_

In the dark of night, Danielle sat, waiting, reflecting on recent occurrences. She was in her latest home, a hastily dug bunker of sorts, a place designed to allow its inhabitant to disappear from the world. It was a rather depressing place, though that was the furthest thought from Danielle's mind that night. She sat regarding the still-unconscious Alex, and was beginning to feel a sense of horror for what she had done.

Watching Alex, Danielle saw bruises and scratches covering the girl's skin, marks of violence that she herself had put there. Emotion was building up inside of her, as she rose to her feet. She felt like she was suffocating. At that moment she wanted nothing more than to get as far away from Alex as possible, wanting to block out the memories of her attack, all memories of her daughter in fact, so she wouldn't have to feel any of this again. But she couldn't move. She stood rooted to the ground, feeling vaguely that she was somehow outside of her body, with no control over her limbs. She couldn't do anything but stand and stare.

Her panic increased as Alex began to stir. Danielle still couldn't move. After a short time, Alex was fully awake, and began to look about her frantically, trying to work out where she was. The pressure in Danielle's chest increased as she watched this, the guilt and the horror of the situation worse now than ever. Alex's searching finally led her to Danielle's position, and she froze. The two women stared at each other, one moment stretching into eternity.

Silence. Again, silence. Always, too often, this everlasting silence. Danielle had had too much silence in her life. She hated it.

So many thoughts were racing through her mind, so many things that needed to be said, so many apologies to be made. Danielle knew she should apologize for what she had just done, for the pain, both physical, and, most likely, emotional, that she'd inflicted. Yet for some reason that she couldn't explain, couldn't even understand, she felt the overwhelming need to apologize for not being there all of Alex's life, for letting the Others take her, for not being able to get her back sooner. For allowing her team members, including her husband, to become sick, ultimately leaving her to defend both herself and her newborn daughter. For failing at even this. And for undertaking a science expedition while she was pregnant. For not foreseeing all the risks, and for ignoring those that she did. So many mistakes.

Considering all of this, Danielle knew she should have thought carefully about what to say. But it seemed her mind was still thoroughly unattached to her body. "They kept your name." Alex seemed just as surprised by this statement as Danielle. "What do you mean?" Alex asked, tentatively. This was good, thought Danielle vaguely. They were talking. "I named you Alexandra when you were born. Before they took you. It was my mother's name." She wasn't sure why she'd added that last detail. Something about this information seemed to intrigue Alex, though Danielle wasn't exactly sure why.

It was quiet again. Danielle wanted Alex to say something, anything. She'd never felt so uncomfortable in her life. Alex didn't seem to want to say anything. She was looking around the strange room, if one could call it that, that the two were standing in. After staring intently at her daughter for a while, Danielle realised with a jolt that Alex was deliberately looking at anything but her. She felt pained by this, but realised that she should have expected it. It seemed she couldn't get anything right. She looked away.

"What's that?" Alex's voice broke through the silence. Danielle was grateful; the relief at such a small thing was overwhelming. She looked up to see what the younger girl was referring to, and was amazed to see that she had moved from her place and was now standing in front of Danielle's beloved music box, examining it as best she could in the all-encompassing dark.

Danielle moved towards her cautiously. Alex didn't even seem to notice until her mother was standing right beside her. Danielle was touched that the one object that held such sentimental value was so interesting to her daughter. She picked it up and opened the lid, letting the sounds of the newly restored music fill the air. Alex's expression changed slightly at the sound, and though Danielle noticed this, she had no idea what Alex was thinking.

"Your father gave it to me." Danielle smiled at the memory. "What happened to him?" Alex asked. Such a casual question, yet it was one that Danielle couldn't stand remembering the answer to. She stepped away, avoiding Alex's questioning eyes, clutching the music box closely. Alex seemed determined to get an answer though. "What happened to him?" she asked again, slightly more demanding this time. "Where is he now?" Louder. Alex moved closer. Danielle wanted to get away form her, she was too close, she was hurting her, couldn't Alex see that she didn't want to answer? "If you really are my mother, why can't you tell me what happened to my father?" The insinuation that she was lying finally made Danielle snap.

"I killed him!" she screamed, turning suddenly, unaware that Alex was now standing extremely close. Alex jumped at the sudden outburst, looking slightly scared again. "He was stranded here with me, then he got sick, and I had to kill him." Danielle tried to explain her actions in the quickest way possible, not wanting to relive the memory of killing the man she loved in its full form.

"What makes you think I'm your daughter?" Danielle wasn't ready for this question. She didn't know how to answer it. How do you explain maternal instinct to a girl who'd never experienced it? She couldn't even explain it to herself. She was a scientist, after all, and this wasn't something that had a scientific explanation. Logically, she could argue that Alex was the right age to be her daughter, her physical appearance was compatible and she didn't think there were many other girls who fit the criteria on the island. But this wasn't why she believed it to be true.

"I just know." She answered simply, not expecting Alex to accept that as an answer. But strangely enough, Alex didn't argue. Danielle was relieved. She was tired of all the questions.

Alex seemed thoughtful, looking around at her surroundings again. Locating the only exit in the bunker, she moved towards it. Danielle noticed this. "What are you doing?" she asked, already knowing the answer. She didn't want Alex to go.

"I'm going home. Back to my family." Alex's response made Danielle want to cry. Those people weren't her family; they were the ones who'd kidnapped her. Danielle hated them, and she couldn't bear the thought that Alex wanted to go back to them. "Don't leave." She asked, pleading, desperate, knowing it wouldn't make any difference. "I only just got you back." Danielle was crying now, something she rarely allowed herself to do.

Alex paused. Danielle waited, expecting her to say something. But there was nothing. Alex started walking again. She left the bunker without looking back.  
Danielle sank to the ground, allowing her emotions to overtake her. She knew Alex was gone for good, that too much time had passed for things to go the way she'd wished. She felt so much despair; it was all she felt. She let it consume her.

After awhile, though, she noticed a new emotion creeping in. It confused her at first. She felt… calm. Relieved. Strangely at peace. She had met her daughter, something she'd dreamed about for sixteen years. She'd had a conversation with her. She'd finally gotten closure, and she discovered that that was all she'd wanted. She smiled, as the first rays of light shone on her face and illuminated her surroundings. The darkness was gone.


	4. Epilogue

_Well, here's the epilogue to my version of events! Huge thanks to **bonboni** for reviewing every chapter of this, as well as everything else I've written. It means so much to me, thank you!_

* * *

_Epilogue_

In the fresh light of dawn, Alex was walking towards her home. After leaving her mother behind it hadn't taken her long to figure out which way home was. She'd spent most of her life tracking this area, and knew it like the back of her hand. This was just as well, as she wasn't concentrating on the invisible path in front of her. She couldn't, not after everything that had just happened.

She'd just met her mother. Even though Alex had said she didn't believe her, she did. She'd never experienced this before, blindly believing in something that had no rhyme or reason. In some strange way, it was the very fact that she couldn't explain why she believed it that made her know that the strange woman she'd just met had been telling the truth. Instinct, she guessed.

Maybe it was more than that. She'd never been happy where she'd been raised. She didn't belong there, she didn't think like the people she knew as her family. She'd always felt like she was someone else entirely. Juliet occasionally expressed the opinion that this was typical teenage angst, that everyone felt like that at that age, and so no one should think anything of it. Alex always thought she was hiding something when she said this. Maybe it was this feeling of alienation that made her so ready to believe what that woman – her mother- had said.

Even as she was slowly trudging back to those people, she knew she didn't belong with them. But she didn't belong with her mother, either. She was stuck, unwilling to move one way, unable to move the other, knowing she couldn't stay where she was. She couldn't make it on her own.

She couldn't stop thinking about everything she'd just found out. Her name had a history. She'd always wondered. Names intrigued her, they gave people identities, personalities, many people could say who they'd been named after, or why their parents had chosen their name. Those people had a story to tell from the moment they were born. She never had. In one sentence, one moment, she'd been given a history, a link to other people, proof that she was a part of something.

Then there was the music box. More than anything else she'd just seen or heard, that was the thing that had surprised her the most. She had one just like it. It was one of her most prized possessions. The people who'd raised her had given her a music box identical to the one her father had given her mother. Why? And why had they kept her name? She began to wonder exactly what purpose she was fulfilling by being with them; why they'd taken her. Although she knew the sort of things they did, the thought that she might have a different role than she'd always assumed had never crossed her mind before.

One thing was becoming clear. She was going to see her mother again. She didn't know when, but after that one meeting she realised she'd been missing something her whole life, something she hadn't even noticed was gone until it had been given back to her for a brief time. Now she didn't think she could live without it. She wanted to find out more about herself, about her mother and her father. Everyone she should have had a connection to growing up.

She couldn't leave her family, but she couldn't abandon her mother again either. Somehow, she had to have both. She didn't know how she'd manage it, or even if either party would let her have it, but she was going to try, to whatever end. With that thought now at the forefront of her mind, Alex walked.

* * *

_The end._


End file.
